In the Name of Jesus
Matthew 17,1-9 (Mark 9,2-13; Luke 9,28-36)
The Feast of the Transfiguration of our Lord (Last Sunday after Epiphany)
Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, France † 368
13. February 2011
1. O Heavenly Father, who sent Your beloved and well-pleased Son to be our Glorious Redeemer, we acknowledge that at times we act like Your disciples and apostles before Your resurrection who had difficulty comprehending the gracious and merciful things You were about. Such misunderstanding and ignorance is rife within Your Church and even more so outside Your Church where the whims of people are accepted instead of Your Holy Scriptures. O send us the Holy Spirit, so that we, like Your post-Easter disciples and apostles, grasp Your will and ministry to suffer, die, and rise again for the redemption and salvation of all the nations of this fallen world. Help us to see in Your majestic transfiguration the power and glory of Your cross and empty tomb wherein the world has been liberated from sin, death, and the devil. Amen.
2. Our sermon text for this morning, dear brothers and sisters, is from the Gospel according to St. Matthew where the holy evangelist writes: Six days later Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves. And He was transformed before them, and His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Jesus. Peter said to Jesus: „Lord, it’s good for us to be here; if You wish, I will make three tabernacles here, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.“ While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said: „This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!“ When the disciples heard this, they fell on their faces and were greatly afraid. Then Jesus came to them and touched them and said: „Get up, and do not be afraid.“ And lifting up their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus Himself alone. As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying: „Tell no one what you have seen until the Son of Man has risen from the dead.“ This is our text.
3. The manifestation of Jesus in Divine glory at His transfiguration is yet another revelation of who Jesus is, namely God. In his Gospel, St. Matthew bookends Jesus’ transfiguration with Jesus’ declaration that the Son of Man must go up to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, be killed, and on the third day be raised from the grave (16,21; 17,22-23). Jesus told His disciples this six days before His transfiguration, and also again shortly after His transfiguration. These are the first and second times in Matthew’s Gospel when Jesus teaches this important doctrine. Jesus will teach the disciples this doctrine two more times in the Gospel according to St. Matthew (20,17-19; 26,1-2).
4. This teaching was not popular among Jesus’ disciples. When Jesus first taught it, the apostles, through their spokesman Peter, rebuked Jesus and exhorted that such a shameful end to the Christ should not happen (16,22). The second time Jesus taught this doctrine, His apostles were greatly distressed (17,23). The third time Jesus spoke on this topic, the mother of James and John, sons of Zebedee, pleaded for Jesus to grant her sons a seat at His left and right in His reign. The fourth time Jesus proclaimed this doctrine, the elders and chief priests immediately gathered to plot Jesus’ arrest and death. The responses to Jesus’ teaching that He will die and rise again are less than stellar.
5. The Christ brings the reign of heaven, and the priority of the reign of heaven is the salvation of fallen mankind. Thus, the primary focus of the reign of heaven is the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The disciples struggled with the hiddenness of the reign of heaven (Gibbs 856). This reign was hidden because Jesus’ teaching on it contradicted what the disciples expected the reign of heaven to be. The disciples expected the reign of heaven to be one of great glory, power, and prestige in which the disciples would reap the blessings as followers of the Christ. Interestingly, three of the outspoken disciples about this reign of glory are Peter, James, and John, the very disciples Jesus takes along with Him up to the mountain to witness His transfiguration.
6. Jesus transfiguration was an event that fit the disciples’ concept of the reign of heaven. Not only was Jesus glorified, but Moses and Elijah appear on the Galilean mountain top to speak with Jesus. The disciples finally have their desired version of the reign of heaven. Finally, Jesus reveals His Divine power and glory and two of the greatest figures in Jewish history appear: Moses the bringer of the Law from Mt. Sinai, and Elijah the prophet and miracle worker.
7. Many Christians throughout the millennia have mistakenly understood Jesus as a new and greater Moses. With this understanding, many Christians perceive Jesus as primarily a Christ who brings the law and commanding people how to live a moral and ethical life. A law-giving Christ is a fierce and terrible Christ. We think it will be beneficial, because a law-giving Christ is what this chaotic and unruly fallen world needs. People need to be told how to live, and evil doers need to be punished. All is well and good when Christ is applying the law to other people, but the law never just targets those other people for the law comes around and accuses us of sin and guilt that merits God’s wrath. The fear of God’s wrath compels us to sorrow and repentance.
8. Christ does not need to bring new laws, for God’s commandments were fully and perfectly given to men and women through the Prophet Moses. „The Scriptures contain God’s plans to save Israel and the whole creation, and Jesus is the manifestation of that plan of God. Therefore Moses is there“ (Gibbs 856). Thus, Moses’ appearance at Jesus’ transfiguration is not to point to Jesus as a new and better Moses, but rather to proclaim that He who fulfills the Law and Prophets is here in the person of Jesus who has arrived to save all the nations from sin and death.
9. We have seen, then, why Moses appears at Jesus’ transfiguration, but why is the Prophet Elijah there? Such a question perplexed Peter, James, and John, too as they asked Jesus on the journey down the mountain „Then why do the scribes say that first Elijah must arrive?“ (17,10). „Elijah’s appearance is a reminder of how the reign of God has already broken into the present in Jesus and that this end-time reality is manifesting itself in Israel and the world in a hidden and paradoxical way. The day will come when all things are restored. That restoration, however, has already begun, and it has begun in Jesus, who is ‘God is with us’ and who brings the reign of God. Therefore Elijah is there as well“ (Gibbs 856-57).
10. Jesus’ transfiguration, however, is not about Moses and Elijah, but about Jesus alone. The chief purpose of the Transfiguration is to proclaim the true identity and glory of Jesus, so as to under gird and support Jesus difficult teaching of the cross (Gibbs 852). „Cross“ and „glory“ are not mutually exclusive categories, but are the divinely ordained sequence of salvation, both for Jesus who accomplishes it and for those who receive it in Christ (Gibbs 851). Jesus’ glorious transfiguration evokes the glory of Yahweh Himself (Gibbs 855).
11. Both Moses and Elijah prepared the way for Jesus and thus they both focus attention onto the Christ. God the Father also speaks at His Son’s transfiguration. He proclaims from the cloud, »This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!«. Q: What are the disciples to listen to from Jesus? What are we to listen to from Jesus? A: Listen to what Jesus says about Himself: Jesus must suffer, be crucified, and rise from the grave. This is the ministry of the Christ, and it is a ministry of the gospel which proclaims Yahweh’s grace and mercy upon all nation, including you and me.
12. This grace and mercy is always before our eyes, for the gospel is portrayed in our stained glass window that is dedicated to Jesus’ Transfiguration. To the left of the Transfiguration is the scene from Genesis 18 when Abraham hosted Yahweh Himself and two angels. To the right is a scene from Daniel 3 when God appears in the fiery furnace with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Each scene teaches us that salvation is at the hand of Yahweh and that His mercy is poured out upon His people, especially those in this 21st century who are His baptized children.
13. At the end of Jesus’ transfiguration, Matthew simply describes the setting, »And lifting up their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus Himself alone«. Jesus. Only Jesus. He is the author of our salvation and the perfecter of our sanctification. Jesus only on the cross suffering and dying for our sins. Jesus only rising from the grave, triumphing over death with new life. Jesus gives us the forgiveness of the cross. Jesus gives us the promise of resurrecting our bodies on the last day. Jesus alone brings us the gospel of His Heavenly Father’s grace. Only Jesus. Amen.
14. Let us pray. O Christ Jesus, whose transfiguration revealed You as the brilliance of the eternal light and a stainless mirror of that Divine power and an image of His goodness, pour upon us Your transfigured glory so that we are assured of our justification based entirely on Your holy merit and that each day we are sanctified more and more into Your righteous image and glory. Amen.
One Message: Christ crucified and risen for you!
All Scriptural quotations are translations done by The Rev. Peter A. Bauernfeind using the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, 4th Edition © 1990 by the Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, the Novum Testamentum Graece, Nestle-Aland 27th Edition © 1993 by Deutsch Bibelgesellschaft, Stuttgart, and the New Testament Greek Manuscripts, Matthew © 1995 by Reuben Joseph Swanson.
Gibbs, Jeffrey A. Matthew 11:2 – 20:34. Copyright © 2010 Concordia Publishing House.
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